In case anyone was wondering I did go for parsing the results of /programmes/a-z/by and everything appears to be working fine. I ran into a slight problem where I forgot to convert HTML entities found in the page source, but tat' mostly fixed (it can't fully handle all named entities but the Beeb seem to using numeric ones anyway).
$ java ui.ShowSearchResults 'doctor' Search Term: doctor ---------------------- b0072v72 Doctor in the House b006q2x0 Doctor Who b006q2xb Doctor Who Confidential b006mh9v Doctors $ java ui.ShowEpisodes 'b006q2x0' Programme ID: b006q2x0 ---------------------- Title: Doctor Who - Series 2, Doomsday Synopsis: As the human race is caught in an intergalactic war, the Doctor faces a greater dilemma. Episode URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0074frg Availability: 2 days left to watch ---- [SNIP] All I have to do now is write the program logic and the GUI ;) Thanks again for all the help. Andy -- $ fortune bug, n: A son of a glitch. - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/